I have devoted a little study to string theory, but it is limited. It is my understanding that String Theory has its own math drawing from different equations from quantum mechanics, which within itself currently seems to check out. I also understand though, that there is no hope to experimentally verify ST (or many of the mathematically theorized physical components it requires) in the foreseeable future.
Science is defined as the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment, therefore I have trouble referring to ST as science, since there is no possibility of physically proving it in the near or even distant future. Reading physicists defend ST against the claim that ST isn’t science most often produces two arguments. First, currently the mathematics predicts it. Second, should it be true, ST would be able to explain everything, and such a notion contains within itself such a beauty that it would be foolish to disregard.
So, it seems to boil down, in my mind, to a matter of faith. You must have a level of faith in the mathematics and the proposed beauty of ST, since it does not align itself within the normal parameters of science. This makes ST a philosophy, which some seek to make an anti-Theology. If you have faith in the story fashioned by the mind of physicists, then you would have no problem believing in the many avenues to which ST leads. For myself, I choose not to believe in the claims of ST, because of the inability to prove or disprove the theory.
At first, this presents in my mind a seeming contradiction. There are matters of my Faith which, deemed a mystery(the Trinity, etc.), I accept purely on the basis of Faith. But if I refuse to believe in one theory for which there can be no proof yet accept another, then am I not making of myself a contradiction?
This to me seems to be one of the most threatening philosophical problems of Theists renouncing ST, since the arguments using ST to explain the big bang as an infinitely recurring phenomenon of the collision of superstrings is simply rebutted with the age old response, “where did the superstrings come from?”. But to me this problem has a simple answer. String theory, with all its grandeur, is a paradigm which has been hatched from the mind of man and has run into continual fundamental errors. My faith, on the other hand, was inspired, created, and passed down by the actions and Grace of God, and though challenged, has never contained within itself fundamental errors threatening its legitimacy.
